Chapter 17: It’s Starting to Get Wet (Please Cast Your Vote)

Chapter 17: Starting to Get Damp (Please Vote)

After carefully scanning the barrage of messages for useful information, Xu Yi felt a bit disheartened after a while.

It was just as the saying goes—those who suffer from drought dry up, and those who face floods drown.

Some people were surrounded and bitten to death by various animals.

Others, without a single animal in sight, could only gnaw on tree bark or eat wild grass, only to be poisoned and die.

At present, the main causes of elimination fell into two categories.

One: being bitten to death by various animals, including dinosaurs.

Two: accidentally ingesting poisonous plants and succumbing to the poison.

Deaths from falling, suicide, or infected wounds were very rare.

Right now, the authorities were preparing to compile statistics and analyze the data using big data.

Unfortunately, these findings might not be revealed to the challengers in the live broadcast.

So, Xu Yi didn’t know whether his luck was good or bad.

“Dad, look! There are fruits on that tree!” Su Keke suddenly shouted, clearly excited.

Xu Yi looked up and indeed spotted some fruits.

The tree wasn’t very thick but was very tall—probably over thirty meters.

“Let’s go take a closer look,” Xu Yi said, heading toward it.

Fruits were scarce in this jungle, and there was little grass on the ground, so there were few herbivores.

Without herbivores, naturally, there were almost no carnivores either.

Birds were the most common creatures they encountered, but Xu Yi’s spear was no match for reaching them.

Unless he could make a hunting bow.

But for now, their stone knives were all dull and struggled even to cut trees. Making a bow and arrows was a tall order.

After walking for over ten minutes, the two finally reached the base of the tree.

There wasn’t a single fruit on the ground.

“These fruits aren’t ripe yet, so none have fallen,” Xu Yi said, tapping the tree with the back of his stone knife but failing to dislodge any.

“This tree is too tall; Dad probably can’t climb it,” Xu Yi added, feeling the bark’s rough texture.

“But I can try.”

He looked around.

There was no protection or safety gear, so he wasn’t about to climb just yet.

At least, he needed to make a vine harness to secure himself to the tree.

Or maybe make foot loops to increase grip.

“Dad, don’t climb, it’s too high,” Su Keke said, doubting Xu Yi could scale such a tall tree. Even the strong young men in her village could only climb trees partially, usually to raid bird nests.

But here, the trees were towering.

Viewers in the live stream also advised Xu Yi not to waste his energy.

No one recognized the fruit, and since it wasn’t ripe, picking it might be useless.

Xu Yi thought it over and agreed.

His stamina was precious now. If they couldn’t find new food today, they’d go hungry.

“Let’s rest a while, then keep moving forward,” Xu Yi told Su Keke, activating his X-ray vision to scan the surroundings.

After looking around, he made a discovery and headed toward the target.

To the viewers, it seemed like he wandered casually, as if to relieve himself.

Then Xu Yi returned with a stone shard.

“Got lucky! I just found a stone shard perfect for making an axe head, and it’s very sharp,” he said, showing it to the audience.

“This piece is about as long as my palm, tapering to half that on one side. I’ll carve a hole in the prepared wooden handle and insert this shard—that will be an axe.”

Xu Yi was delighted to share this with the viewers. Once the stone axe was ready, things would be much easier.

They couldn’t make the axe during the day, as they hadn’t found a water source yet.

Though they still had some water, without a steady source, Xu Yi and Su Keke had to ration their drinking.

“Even just using this to hack at trees is better than my old stone knife,” he said.

After resting a bit, the two set off again.

“Look, that tree has moss,” Xu Yi pointed out.

“That means the air is getting moist. This is good—we’re probably close to a water source,” he said excitedly. Moss thrives in damp environments.

He also noticed more grass growing on the ground.

That suggested herbivores might appear soon.

The two continued exploring, scanning everywhere in hopes of new discoveries.

Xu Yi saw more climbing vines too.

Maybe they really had entered a humid rainforest zone.

“Dad, look! Lingzhi mushrooms!”

“Meow meow meow?”

Lingzhi?

Following Su Keke’s finger, Xu Yi spotted a red lingzhi mushroom, larger than his palm, perched about seven or eight meters high—strikingly vivid.

The tree forked at about five or six meters, and the branch with the mushroom was already dead and covered in moss.

“This is a tonic. Dad’s going to pick it,” Xu Yi declared.

He looked around and found some slender vines.

He tore them down, braided them into a loop, then wrapped the middle to create two small loops on either side.

He had seen this technique in a documentary—it’s used for climbing trees.

Then Xu Yi took off his shoes and slipped his feet into the loops.

[Unexpectedly, Number One is quite professional, knowing to use this for climbing.]

[If he can climb, maybe he can raid bird nests too.]

[Hey guys, is that lingzhi a thousand-year-old immortal mushroom? Will eating it grant immortality?]

[Lol, this forest isn’t even a thousand years old, let alone a thousand-year lingzhi.]

Because the trunk was thick, climbing was still strenuous.

Without the foot loops, Xu Yi wouldn’t have been able to climb at all.

Climbing drains stamina and demands strong muscles.

Still, he carefully climbed to the fork.

Holding the trunk with one arm, his knees gripping tight, Xu Yi stretched out a hand to pluck the lingzhi.

With a gentle shake, the mushroom fell.

“Dad, I caught it!” Su Keke cheered.

“Good, I’m coming down now,” Xu Yi replied, scanning the surroundings for anything else.

Unfortunately, the leaves blocked the view, making it impossible to see far.

So Xu Yi carefully slid down to the ground.

Once down, Su Keke handed him the intact lingzhi.

Xu Yi squeezed it—it was hard and perfect for soup.

Still, he worried.

What to eat for lunch?

Thanks to readers Chifeng Wuying and Wanghou Gongqingshi for their support!

(End of chapter)